The Rubber Room column is a weekly look at recent and notable releases that don’t fall into the rubric of traditional reviewed material—namely 7”’s, 12”’s, 3” CDs, EPs, cassette-only and MP3-only releases.

Matthew Dear
Backstroke
[Ghostly International, 2004]

Dear deftly sidesteps the pressure of following up Leave Luck to Heaven with the fine EP Backstroke, a mini-album more prominently featuring his vocals. On “Tide” Dear floats his distinctive baritone above a loping bass line and scratchy funk rhythm in a style that vaguely recalls “Dog Days” (as does “Huggy’s Parade,” although this time given a disorientated, woozy spin). Other highlights include the light minimal house of “Takes On You” with its vague Chain Reaction stylings and the infectious Latin-house grooves of “And In the Night.” This finely crafted set shows Dear elevating the micro-house genre with artistry while not betraying its spirit.
[Ron Schepper]

Bravecaptain
Eating the Afterlife EP
[MP3 Download, 2004]

Another giant leap forward, lyrically and vocally, for the errant Martin Carr whose experimental pop sound is expanding and sharpening with each release. Like skimming through FM stations Bravecaptain slips between scuzzy techno, agrestic acoustic sounds and feedback freak-out. The incredible ease with which he covers such dissimilar ground on “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace” alone is proof that the man is mining a very rich seam of something both Beach Boy and Aphex shaped. Fair enough applauding those who are reaching up to touch the stars, but it’s about time we realised that Bravecaptain is offering us handfuls of the stuff already.
[Scott McKeating]

I Am The World Trade Center / Paper Lions
Split 12”
[Doubling Cube, 2004]

Could do without the dude in the band singing by himself, but overall IATWTC’s lead single from their newest album offers an intriguing teaser to the new album. Can it all be this good? They don’t bother to answer, following it up with convincing (Stone Roses’ “Shoot You Down”) and unconvincing (Human League “Don't You Want Me”) takes on modern gems. The Paper Lions, on the other hand, come at it with all originals that sound like covers. This time the post-rock is gone, replaced by post-punk. Excepting “Line Up”, next time it might be interesting to hear post-I-can’t-escape-my-influences.
[Todd Burns]

Pekko Käppi
Bubnit sebje pod nos 3” CD-R
[267 Lattajjaa, 2003]

Pekko Käppi’s work for violin and voice sounds gorgeously alone, streamed direct from mind to hand-and-lung. On Bubnit sebje pod nos, Käppi builds rough, excoriating structures of string squeal which occasionally slide back into lush drones. “Räntaa” introduces a Jew’s harp and references folk music’s jigs and reels; other tracks draw more from European medieval music traditions. But when Käppi sings along to a broken threnody on “Milloin ahven nukkuu”, it’s as affecting and disorienting as Teiji Ito’s soundtrack to Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon: a reedy voice, moving alongside the violin’s frail buzz, capturing mythopoetic drama and yearning.
[Jon Dale]

Thomas Fehlmann
Little Big Horn
[Kompakt, 2004]

Kompakt goes…wild west? If Dorau and Koehncke’s “Abermorgen” didn’t have you believing, “Little Big Horn” might. This time, though, it’s not a radical shift in tone. Instead, Fehlmann wraps up his western-tinged melody in the familiar cheese-cloth techno gauze that seems to define his sound. “Brushed” is the B-side schaffel that’s more Mayer than Metal and “With Oil” is a satisfying gaseous ambient crawl. Looks like we might not be hearing much more from Fehlmann this year, considering this release covers his possible entries to all three of Kompakt’s series of compilations (Total, Schaffelfieber, Pop Ambient). Luckily, they’re all satisfying.
[Todd Burns]